There is an increasing effort on the part of many sports fishermen to release caught fish. However, many species are very fragile and can easily die if removed from the water and handled roughly for the purpose of removing hooks. Barbless hooks have been used to ease the removal effort and to minimize injury to released fish. However many fish still die from exposure to air and extended handling during the hook removal process.
In an attempted solution to the problem, hook removers have been developed to minimize the time and efforts required to remove hooks. While some have indeed helped save many fish, the time required for hook removal is still significant, as is required handling of the fish.
An exemplary improved hook remover is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,865; granted on Jul. 8, 1997 to Harrison et al. The Harrison hook remover includes a handle with a slotted tubular structure at one end. The tube configuration is angularly oriented to the handle and the slot, which extends the full length of the tube, opens along a flat line guide surface that is formed into the handle.
The Harrison tube is circular in cross section and, in at least one commercial version, is approximately 3/4 inch long. The bore within the tube is approximately 1/8 inch in diameter. Thus the bore dimension is significantly less than the tube length (approximately 17% of the tube length). While the device is functional, the small bore diameter, long tube length, orientation and shape of the slot, and the single line guide surface lead to difficulties in use.
Firstly, the circular nature of tube and the slot length, and the singular line guide surface contribute to difficulties in attaching the remover to a fish line. The line must be tight and straight in order to be received in the long, straight slot. Further, the device must be accurately oriented in relation to the line for the guide surface and slot to properly receive the line. This means the line must be held tight, usually by one hand, and either the line or the hook remover must be maneuvered into the right orientation for engagement with the single line guide surface before the line can be guided into the tubular section. This is not an easy task especially if the fish is fighting to be free.
Secondly, the small diameter of the tube bore will not accept many different size fly bodies or hook sizes. Since the tube bore is intended to be slidably received over the hook shank (and fly body in the case of a fishing fly), separate size removers become advisable for different size hooks and flies. This becomes an inconvenience for those who fish with different size hooks and flies.
Thirdly, the straight axial slot in the tubular member requires that the fisherman be careful not to line up the slot with the bend of the hook, because the tube could easily slide off the hook during the thrust required to disgorge the hook barb and require re-threading of the line onto the tubular member. The hook would remain in the fish, the end of the remover could gouge into the fish, and the user would be required to once again thread the remover onto the fish line and repeat the removal effort. All this significantly increases the possibility that the fish will be injured.
Even with the above disadvantages, the Harrison hook remover represents an improvement over the older style long nose pliers, and bulbous plastic hook disgorges that were used in the past. Still, it is obvious that further improvements are desirable.
Aside from removing hooks from fish, forms of removal tools have been developed for removing hooks from submerged objects such as logs. One such device is a lure retriever that includes an elongated helical-spiral wire is mounted at the end of an extendable pole. To remove a hook from a submerged object, the user turns the spiral end around the fish line, then slides the end along the line to the lure. A thrust of the device serves to dislodge the hook. Upon retrieval, the user must unwind the line or lure from the wire. This device would not be serviceable for catch and release hook removal from fish, mainly because the wire must be turned around the line; and the long shaft, being substantially coaxial with the helical spiral is not conducive to hook removal from fish.
As a solution to the above problematic issues, the present invention has for an objective, provision of a hook remover that is easy and reliable for use in quickly removing hooks from fish.
Another object is to provide such a hook remover that may be used on a wide variety of hook and fly sizes.
A further objective is to provide such a hook remover that cannot be easily removed from the line during a thrusting motion to remove the hook or from angling the remover to dislodge the hook.
These and still further objectives and advantages may become apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments of my invention.